Saturday, January 30, 2010

30 January 2006 - The Rams Butt Brown Out

On 30 January 2006, second-division Derby County sacked manager Phil Brown after only seven months in charge.

Derby had taken a risk in hiring Brown, whose only prior experience in the top job consisted of five matches as caretaker manager of Bolton Wanderers. Bolton won four of the five, but gave the permanent position to Sam Allardyce, who retained Brown as an assistant.

After he took over at Derby in June 2005, the Rams won only seven of their 33 matches, with 14 draws and 12 losses. They were sitting in 19th place when Brown was fired. Derby replaced him with Billy Davies, who led the Rams to promotion for the 2007-08 season, but was himself fired in November 2007 as Derby floundered in the top flight.

Brown, meanwhile, moved to second-division Hull City in December 2006 and led them to the Premier League for the 2008-09 season. Unlike Derby, Hull managed to stay up in their first season, finishing one point out of the relegation zone. That season was not without controversy for Brown, who drew sharp criticism for his behavior, including one incident in which he kept his players on the pitch at halftime and shouted at them in full view of the crowd (pictured above).

Brown's position at Hull is precarious, as the Tigers are presently sitting second from bottom, with one win in their last ten matches.

[2012 update: Brown's contract at Hull ended in June 2010 after the club dropped into the Championship. In January 2011, he took over at Preston North End, but was unable to save the club from relegation and was sacked eleven months later.]